According to The Information,AI Search EngineGiant Perplexity In the past year, although faced with friendly free AI search toolsof fierce competition, but its subscription revenue and membership numbers are growing rapidly, and it's behind Perplexity's subsidized approach by 'burning money'.
Looking at Perplexity's financials.Its subscription revenue increased by $59 million in 2024, while discounts and refunds were cut by $27 million, and the company's actual revenue was $34 million after combining multiple aspects of revenue, including advertising revenue.
The report noted that Perplexity's aforementioned $27 million was mainly used for subscription discounts, event promotions, and other content, such as a year's free service for One members of the ride-hailing software Uber; and a month's free use for edu education users.
But overall, Perplexity's net income was a loss of $68 million. Of that, Perplexity paid $8 million for AI model support from OpenAI, Anthropic, and spent more than $33 million to provide the service to free users.
The report mentions that while significant discounting and advertising and marketing can quickly gain new subscribers, such expenditures may backfire once investment funds dry up.
But Perplexity's revenues are currently showing continued growth. In March, Perplexity co-founder Aravind Srinivas said the company had surpassed $100 million in annualized revenue, meaning it was generating $8.3 million per month, up 25% from January.
Additionally, Perplexity, in an effort to avoid homogenization with other AI search products, has chosen to extend its offerings to differentiate itself, such as the upcoming Comet browser, which is capable of evolving into a fully autonomous Web Agent with a foundation for building Operator tools.